PANAJI
The Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) for government employees announced in the last Budget by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant is expected to be implemented within a month.
In the first phase, the scheme would be for all government employees, barring gazetted officers.
The chief minister has made a financial arrangement of Rs 10 crore for the VRS and the scheme will be implemented after the government sanctions the proposal.
The chief minister had proposed a number of schemes in his last Budget, but many could not be implemented for various reasons. The VRS scheme for the government officers was one of those schemes.
With the gazetted officers excluded in the first phase, a total of 60,000 government employees would be able to avail the scheme depending on them. These employees can make an application to the government and avail of the scheme, according to government sources.
Employees who wish to retire voluntarily as part of this scheme would be offered good remuneration.
The VRS is aimed at those employees who fall sick on and off, and those who cannot work on account of different reasons.
The government had directed heads of departments to prepare a list of “lazy” and “inactive” employees, but even after this order was issued, the list could not be prepared.
The VRS is aimed at those employees who due to their sickness, or because they do not have any potential to work, cannot do justice to their work and wish to retire from government service.
According to sources, the VRS being offered to government employees will be an opportunity for those who have completed 15-20 years in service.
The State government has more than 55,000 employees in the ‘C’ category. If the VRS is availed by employees on a large scale, these posts would be vacant in various government departments.
Incidentally, such provisions had been available in the past, with the VRS being implemented three times since 1989.
However, in the past few years, there had only been announcements regarding the scheme but there had been no implementation. That is, until now and the State government is keen to go ahead with this scheme.
